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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBonfireCollapse-NOV19-Pg1P A 4 Frida Y November 19,1999 ~~ High 79, Low 58 Partly cloudy ~~ Forecast /B7 ~ ~~ ~_ ^.^.~... Pxac 50 cents "How can we ever forget what happened here?" Bonfire tragedy stuns Aggi `Family' sl By COLLEEN KAVANAGH Eagle Staff Writer Robert Smith was awakened early Thursday morning by a frantic :phone call from his daughter, Meghann, a student at Texas A&M University, "There's been a horrible acci• dent," she said through sobs. "You'll probably hear about it on the news. I'm OK." The elder Smith immediately decided to make the three-hour ~ppart .swell ~ Housing assistance /A3 trip from Beaumont to College Station to comfort Meghann after Aggie Bonfire collapsed. He also said he wanted to help his daugh• ter and hundreds. of other stu- dents as crews launched a res• cue~and-recovery effort after the towering, 40-foot pyramid of logs came roaring dawn, crushing some students to death and injur• ing dotiens of others. " What neither of the Smiths s for ~-.&M expected, however, was the amount of help that the Aggies would get from the Bryan•Col- lege Station community =the extended A&M family. Boxes of food,.. water and soft drinks poured into the site. Stu- dents and community members prayed near Bonfire as rescuers worked. Hotels offered free lodg- ing for family members of stu- dents killed or injured in the col- See HELP, Page A2 ~. Heard, a freshman from _ DANIEL N0$1ES Houston; Lucas John Kim• mel, a freshman from Cor- Texan A&M j°11Of pus Christi; Bryan Allan McClain, a freshman from San Antonio; Chad Antho- ny Powell, a sophomore from Keller; Jerry Don Self, a sophomore from Arlington; Nathan Scott West, a sophomore froth Bellsire; Miranda Adams, a soplio- ! more from Pasadena, Texas; and Michael Ebanks, a ' freshman. One former ..student also was killed, Christopher David Breen of Austin, who graduated in 1997 and once was active in building Bonfu~e. It was unclear why he was working at the site where, at the time of the accident; as many as 70 students hung from safety belts while working. 'Two of the bodies remained pinned in the wreckage well into the night. Crews removed the last body, that of Adains, at about 1 a.m. Friday. Authorities said it was "more than likely" that no others remained trapped under the small mountain of logs:. Along with several hundred others helping, junior Daniel Nobles was asked to leave the inside of t,~e perimeter at about 4:30 p.m. 1 r "T think they knew at that point that there probably / wasn't hope for those left inside," Nobles said as his. friends gathered in clusters with tear-soaked faces. Many stood helplessly, not knowing what to do next. "This is such a helpless feeling," said Nobles, whose neighbor was killed in the disaster. "Everyone out here helping is a hero right along with the students who died this morning. They will never be forgotten by us. This is a huge school, but this is like a death in our family. How can we ever forget what happened here?» Structural engineers worked side-by-side with res- cue workers, though with a different mission. ; Lifted by cranes, firefighters were armed with chainsaws to cut through wires binding the logs, while engineers, along with the University Police Department, began a tedious investigation into what caused the logs to crater. The only other time in its 90- year history that Bonfn•e fell was in 1994, but the rea- son was well-known: torrential rains soaked the area. Four bodies were recovered soon after Thursday's violent collapse. But the last two students rescued within seven hours of the accident paved the way for hope that the lives others who were unaccounted for would be spared. Those hopes faded as one by one, bodies, covered in white sheets, were carefully pulled from the wreck- See TRAGEDY, Page A3 Beer e~S Ilfe Y g A Jasper County jury returned a life sentence Thursday for Shawn R1ValY~ The Bryan and Klein football teams wiR renew their old rivalry INSIU~ Business...,B4 Landers .. Classified ... D1 Lottery Comics...... D2 Movies; .... e . BT 61 . B8 63 The Eagle online: www.theeagle.com www.aggiesports.com . -= ° o ~o _~~'_-~~-~ Allen Berry. in area playoffs. s.. Crossword...D3 Obituan Gartlen....: B5 Opinions .:. Horoscope .. D2 Weather.... : . B2 . BT ~~~ recycle .~.,...,..,.~ r----N s Region/B1 Sports/C1 "~ e e o~~unl Stack colla se p .kills 11 students, leaves 28 hurt By KELLY BROWN Eugle Staff Writer In seven frantic seconds, the Texas A&M Universi- ty Bonfire collapsed before dawn Thursday, taking the lives of at least 11 of its creators and leaving a wound in the heart of Aggieland. Most of those killed were working on the top level of the 4Q-foot stack of togs when. it crumbled without .warning jus# before 2:30`a.m. Thursday. Twenty-eight'students were injured as one of Texas ABM University's most prized traditions buckled.. Among those taken to the hospital were four stu- dents who had to be < < Everyone extracted from the pile of out here helping more than s,ooo togs. is a hero ri ht The students killed in g the accident include: Jere- along Wtth the my Richard Frampton, a students who senior from Turlock, calif.; Jamie Lynn Hand, a died this freshman. from. Hender• m0rning.1 son; " .Christopher Lee Texas A&M Unlversfty sophomore Erin Delcareon holds up her pot as she prays dur• eyed for the memorial while rescue workers continued working at the Bonffre sRe ing a tearful vigil held at Rudder Fountain on Thutsday afternoon. The students gath• after the 40•foot stack of logs crumbled just before 2:30 a.m. Thursday.